We've got a few seals around here the Orcas could practice on, if they wish.

-- Eric

juro

05-08-2006, 10:15 AM

Such efficient killing machines they are indeed! But intelligent ones.

Food, Eating and Hunting
Killer Whales have huge appetites. One male whale had 13 porpoises and 14 seals in its stomach. Killer Whales don't only eat whales, they also eat squid, sea elephants, seals, dolphins, narwhals, polar bears and will occasionally attack schools of salmon and tuna. Some Killer Whales need to eat three seal pups a day in order to survive. Killer Whales can tell the difference between an adult seal and a pup seal by the splashes they make.
Killer Whales are very clever hunters. They travel in schools and attack even the blue whale. They always attack in groups. Some people call the Killer Whale "wolves of the sea" because they hunt in packs like wolves. They will circle their prey and bite its stomach or make its prey open its mouth and seize its tongue. A Killer Whale will bump or tip ice floats to dislodge seals which they can easily catch in the water. Killer Whales are one of the few whales that can come up on land. They do this because they try to force seals into the water so they can kill them and eat them. They also do this to the polar bear but they have to break through the ice and sometimes they actually have to come up on the ice which is very dangerous for them.

The Killer Whale is the only natural enemy to other whales like the blue whale, and the only natural enemy of the leopard seal.

Killer Whales hunt seal by waiting until a pup seal is too far out in the ocean or does not know that the whale is there. The more experienced hunters lead the attack. The less experienced stay behind in the deeper water to catch any seal pups that might, in their panic, swim out to sea. When the Killer Whale senses the time is right, it will ride a wave in and grab the seal in its big powerful mouth. The Killer Whale will sometimes let a pup seal go and no one knows why they do this. In order to practice hunting seal, Killer Whale mothers teach their young calves how to hunt seal pups by pushing them up on the shore. They have to practice this so they don't get beached during the real thing.

Killer Whales are silent when hunting seals so they can hear the seal pups splashing in the water. Killer Whales use their sonar by listening to their own clicking sounds and their pod's (a pod is the rest of its family) clicking sounds. They listen to their prey's swimming patterns to catch them. Nothing is safe from the Killer Whale, not the smallest water bird nor the biggest whale.

Extracted from primary school text...
http://www.thewildones.org/SFC/Seana/george.html

Great white shark no match for orca...
http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9710/08/whale.vs.shark/

There was a video segment on a whale calf attack by orcas just off Nantucket the other day on the local news channel in fact!

No wonder they have a few spare cycles to teach their young the ways of the wild.

chromedome

05-08-2006, 05:55 PM

Wow!!

Thanks "chromedome" for the link..!!

Phew... that was pretty close!! :confused:

Ann:)

Your welcome, Ann. I thought Juro's post was quite interesting.

juro

05-08-2006, 06:01 PM

I strive for a realistic balance and am genuinely amazed with orca, having seen hundreds of them up close and personal while being a boat owner in the pacific northwest sometimes so close I was in the mist of their breath.

Charlie

05-11-2006, 11:17 AM

Some very cool stuff! These are some amazing creatures.

teflon_jones

05-11-2006, 01:41 PM

And to top it all off, they let it go. What other creature in nature plays with its food like that and purposefully lets it go? I guess a cat does that with a mouse sometimes, but they're domesticated animals.

juro

05-11-2006, 02:56 PM

homo sapiens ;)

JimW

05-11-2006, 05:15 PM

The closest I've ever gotten to one is at Sea World, and that works for me. All you have to do is look into one of those big eyes to know there's something more going on than eat - swim - eat - swim.